Mornin' y'all,

Just got back from Discovery Park, where a number of folks did the monthly bird monitoring. Saw some decent birds in the forest, particularly lots of Brown Creepers and a juvenile Coopers Hawk.

Afterwards, I went down to the beach area with one of the volunteers, and it turned out to have been a low tide (hadn't bothered to check before hand), and it looked to have been a very low tide indeed. Many California and Glaucous-winged Gulls, and at least one Western Gull. There were also the most Caspian Terns I have ever seen in one area before. We counted 57 on the beach at one spot, with others flying around, and a couple of dozen others further north up towards the lighthouse. As we got closer to the lighthouse, we could see the gulls congragating out in the shallow water off the point, and there were 10 Rhinoceros Auklets diving and feeding! Excellent views, closest I have ever had personally. We also got to see a nice Spotted Sandpiper bobbing his (or her) little butt up and around through the rocks, chasing and eating all sorts of flying insecta. Last bird spotted for the morning was a Sharp-shinned Hawk that came in low around the lighthouse and then sprinted
south and into some shrubs by the STP. An excellent morning for birding Discovery Park. Should be well worth a trip in the early morning tomorrow as well for folks who want to see Terns & Auklets. Cheers!

Brett A. Wolfe
Seattle, WA
m_lincolnii at yahoo.com


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